Life for Melanie has returned to normal. She works as a gardener with friend Stooper, eats at Mason's Diner, and sits on her farmhouse porch with friends Syl and Sandi. Her biggest challenge is helping Mr. Tibbs get used to the still-unnamed black cat that sauntered into the household.And then she finds a body in the coat closet at the Farm Bureau dinner. The local grain operator had angered farmers with increased prices, but who kills for an extra few cents per bushel of corn?Tired of fingers pointing toward her and curious about why someone burned some of her late father's files, Mel does some poking on her own. The kidnapping of a local woman raises the stakes. With pets who have a nose for trouble, Melanie seeks a devious suspect. Elaine L. Orr writes four mystery series. The twelve-book Jolie Gentil cozy mystery series is set at the Jersey shore, and  Behind the Walls was a finalist for the 2014 Chanticleer Mystery and MayhemAwards. The three-book River's Edge series takes place along the meandering Des Moines River, and Demise of a Devious Neighbor was a Chanticleer finalist in 2017. The Logland series, set in small-town Illinois, has three books. The Family History Mystery Series is set in the mountains of her home state, Maryland. The four-book series began with Least Trodden Ground , and introduced an ornery ghost in book two,  Unscheduled Murder Trip, which received an Indie B.R.A.G Medallion. Uncle Benjamin adds historical insight and a fair bit of humor.   Elaine  also writes plays andnovellas, including the one-act play, Common Ground published in 2015.Her novella, Biding Time , was one of five finalists in the National Press Club's first fiction contest, in 1993. Recent reflective fiction includes  Falling Into Place and In the Shadow of Light.   Elaine conducts presentations on electronic publishing and other writing-related topics. Nonfiction includes Writing When TIme is Scarce  and Words to WriteBy:Getting Your Thoughts on Paper . A member of Sisters in Crime, Elaine was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Maryland; she moved to the Midwest in 1994. Elaine graduated from the University of Dayton and the American University.She did some journalism coursework at the University of Maryland and has taken fiction courses from The Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD, the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and Georgetown University's Continuing Education Program. Elaine is a regular attendee at what is now Prime Crime at the Columbia Club, held each October in Indianapolis.